In the 2 weeks since I last blogged...

Funny how quickly time can go by between blogs!  I didn't mean for 2 weeks to pass since the last time I was here.

In the 2 weeks since I last blogged I've been grocery shopping 5 times.  My grocery shopping is almost always limited to what I can or want to carry in my daypack or in bags.  A lot of times, just for the exercise, I walk to the grocery store.  It's a little over a mile.  I seldom walk home though burdened as I am with $15-20 worth of groceries so I walk about a quarter a mile and catch a bus back close to home.

In the 2 weeks since I last blogged I've been to the Children's Hospital and held abandoned babies 3 times.

In the 2 weeks since I last blogged I've hosted 3 dinners at my house- Valentine's Night for some friends, a Sunday afternoon for the kids from the Messianic Church and then again last Sunday for the guys/girls in our worship band at church AND I had brunch at a friend's apartment with a bunch of the same friends.

In the 2 weeks since I last blogged I got a haircut and participated in an all-morning staff meeting.

In the 2 weeks since I last blogged I've had 2 language lessons and 3 band practices.

In the 2 weeks since I last blogged I helped lead worship for a youth meeting and spoke at a youth meeting and attended a meeting about refugee ministry in Uzhgorod.

In the 2 weeks since I last blogged I've started working on 5 new worship songs in Russian.

In the 2 weeks since I last blogged I took 2 days off; one of them I think I slept pretty much ALL day long! (My pedometer says I walked 129 steps that day).

In the 2 weeks since I last blogged I met two different Ukrainian friends for coffee.  That was only part of the coffee I drank in the last 2 weeks.

And in the last 2 weeks I since I last blogged I walked about 102,000 steps or about 45 miles.

Tie tying contest...um, yeah, Ira is showing them how to tie a Tie.

Qwiki

This is kinda fun.  I created this brief slide show thingy with a new App called Qwiki.  To me it looks sort of like a slide show/ mini-movie version of Instagram.  It's really pretty clever.  It can automatically pull pictures/videos with the same approximate date (or maybe some other identifying information) and then add stock music or pull from your library.  Or of course, you can exercise manual control in creating the sequence and adding music...like I did below.  

One drawback is it's necessarily pretty short...I'd love to use it to make a full length slide show.  

Qwiki is not just a multi-media App, it's also a Social Network like Instagram so you can follow and be followed.  Neat concept.

Another "Semester" is in the books.

We call our "Bi-Monthly" coaching sessions "Semesters".  I don't know why.  When I think "semester" I think of two units in a year.  We meet with the churches we're coaching every other month for 14 months and call each session a "Semester".  Again, I don't know why.

But I digress.  We just finished our Third Semester with the church we're coaching in Kalush and I have to say I think it was the best.  I absolutely meant it when I shared with the whole church Sunday morning that with each successive visit I love their kids and Youth Leadership team more and more.

I'm sure that's the reason why this past weekend was so much fun.  We're starting to get to know them and they're getting to know us.  Their leaders and their students are sponges soaking up the training and working hard to implement the strategy.

When we go back in April for the 4th "Semester" we get to do something with them all day Saturday "just for  fun" in order to both emphasize the importance of fellowship in their team and to give us all a little break.  You know? Teams that play together stay together.  That's the idea.

It's hard to imagine a weekend being more fun than this last one was though.

Be in prayer for them.  Their teenagers face all the issues kids back in the States face with one really noticeable difference: Most Protestant churches here are likened to a "sect" which really makes sharing their faith a challenge.

Procrastination. Or not.

I do have stuff I need to be doing.  But it's been more than a week since I blogged...and I need to do that too, right?  Probably not.

But anyway.  It's Monday.  And it's the beginning of a busy week.  This coming weekend Christina and I will coach the church in Kalush again.  It's our "3rd" session with them where we focus on helping them build their leadership team and get them started on their small group ministry.  We'll also get them started writing Vision and Mission statements.

Friday night I'm teaching a very abbreviated version of Saddleback's 301 Class.  It's all about how we're all "SHAPEd" for ministry.  We'll look really quickly at Spiritual Gifts (S), our Passion/Heart (H), our Abilities/talents (A), our Personality (P), and our Experiences (E).  I've always loved this stuff; I think it makes so much sense.  After I fly through that presentation, Christina will administer a DISC personality assessment for them.

On Saturday morning, we'll pick-up where we left off with a focus on the DISC tool and how their personality affects them personally and when they're working as a team.  We'll use several initiative games to help them see what we're talking about.

Saturday afternoon Christina will talk about "Understanding Teenagers/Development" and then we'll talk about how to "do" a small group Bible study/Discipleship session.  That evening we'll actually go through a small group time to model for them what we're talking about.  I'll be using one of Platt/Chan's Multiply resources.

Sunday morning I'll preach in their church, most likely about how we're all called to be ministers.  And then after lunch we'll talk with them more about starting their small group ministry and about writing Vision/Mission statements.

That's a LOT packed into a weekend, huh!

Here's a picture that has nothing to do with Kalush.  It's some of the kids from Light for the Nations Messianic Church hanging out at my house this past Sunday.

Passion. People.

Being a Doorholder at Passion really doesn't leave much time to visit with people.  It's a sacrifice you make.  But I was fortunate this year that my work schedule allowed me to visit with some friends.  Some of them I only saw for a few moments and really, I didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked with ANY of them.  But the time I had was special nevertheless.

My friend Kelsea tracked me down on the first day and then went out of her way to visit with me everyday!  Who is Kelsea?  I love stories like this.  Back in the summer of 08 I spoke at a camp in Pittsburg, PA (I think) and Kelsea was there with her church from Alabama.  I worked at 4 camps that summer and Kelsea is one of just a handful of kids I've stayed in touch with.  She has a great heart for Jesus and the Great Commission and it's a joy to get to be a part of her life.

Another couple of friends I got to visit with were Jessica and Britni.  They were World Racers that stayed with me here in Ukraine back in April of last year.  Jessica and I started plotting back then to get together at Passion 2013 and we did it!!

Of course I got to spend some time with the college kids from Zion Hill Baptist Church and their amazing adult leaders, my life-friends Stik and his sister Janet.  This is a group I didn't get to spend as much time with as I would have liked; I wish I could have been with them as they were unpacking all that God was doing during the conference but I'm happy to have spent at least some time with them.

Finally, I got to spend a little bit of time with the Dorris family and with their awesome oldest daughter, Grace, who along with her friends Rob and MiKayla joined our little group from Zion Hill for the week. Lamar and I were roommates at MSU.  We both majored in Wildlife and our paths use to cross occasionally back when I worked for the State.  His wife Julie was also at MSU and if she'd spent any more time at our apartment back then we probably would have charged her rent.  All that to say: we go way back!  Thing is... I left "Wildlife" work almost 20 years ago and moved to the Coast where I went to seminary and got married and just fell out of touch with Lamar and Julie (and others).  One of the benefits of being a faith-supported missionary is that tracking down old friends is part of the job.  I'm so glad I reconnected with the Dorris' back in 2011 before I moved to Ukraine.  I'm so glad to have them back in my life and as a bonus I had the pleasure of sharing some time at Passion with Grace, who is a really incredible young lady after God's heart.

Jetlagging...might as well write something

Passion 2013 was the 3rd time I've been a Doorholder.  I was a Doorholder last year and I worked at the first ever Passion World Tour- it was in Kiev, Ukraine back in May of 2008.  Before that I was a Student Minister taking students to Passion events as far back as 1999 in Ft Worth, TX, the 3rd ever Passion event.

While it is true that I like being a Doorholder because I want to "give back" and I want to usher in students to a place I've been before, I have to admit to a more selfish reason: I'm not a student, I'm no longer really a student leader, so the only option I have to continue to be involved with Passion is as a volunteer!

And I don't mind working behind the scenes to get there.  In fact, as far as "serving" goes, I rather prefer to be in the background anyway.

My "Team" at Passion was the Worship and Justice Team.  Specifically, I was a cashier at one of the End It Movement giving stations.  It was a great job!  Not only did I have a small hand in setting the display up the day before students arrived but I was able to interact with hundreds of them throughout the conference. And this year in particular, the schedule was conducive to being able to attend several main sessions.

And just like last year, working on a team gave me an opportunity to meet some amazing fellow servants.  Their stories are always inspiring.  Some of them serve because they're in a position similar to my own...no longer a student and not really a staff minister responsible for a group of students.  Some of them are parents of teens who have benefited from Passion.  Many of them, especially on the Worship and Justice Team are working in incredible ministries such as Atlanta area anti-trafficking ministries.

Passion 2013

There's no way I can describe Passion 2013 in a few paragraphs. I'll try to tackle it in a couple of blogs.  I think I'll write about the emphasis on slavery first.

I was a Doorholder; a volunteer.  I worked on the Worship and Justice Team which among other things operated the EndIt giving stations where we collected more than $3.2 million for 19 ministry partners bringing Awareness, Prevention, Rescue, and Restoration to modern day slavery.

In case you've been living under a rock, there are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today; more than at any other time in history, far surpassing even the Atlantic Slave Trade of the 18th Century.

The social network "enditmovement" was launched at Passion 2013.  Probably the last thing we need is another "organization" but that's not what the "Enditmovement" is.  It's a temporary thing designed to "shine the light" on slavery and to point people through social media to those organizations that are already in the fight.  You should check it out at www.enditmovement.com.

One afternoon featured a Round Table Discussion with Louie Giglio and leaders of several prominent domestic and international anti-slavery ministries.  I didn't get to stay for all of it but I was very impressed with how articulate and passionate everyone was.  I'm looking forward to the release of the DVD.

In an effort to put a name on the face of slavery the first night featured a very dramatic story about the rescue of a 12 year old Filipino girl named Rachel who was raped by her Uncle and sold to a brothel.  The highlight of the night, maybe even of the whole conference, was when that precious child was introduced to 60000 students in a standing ovation Louie later described as louder than anything heard during the Chick-Fil-A bowl the night before.  What I learned attending Passion City Church after the Passion Conference was that several of the EndIt giving station attendants (Doorholders) reported receiving donations of $73.  At first they thought it was an odd amount and didn't relate it to the Rachel's story but when the supervisors kept hearing more and more stories they finally put two and two together.  It wasn't a coordinated effort; just random students choosing to honor Rachel.  You see, she was sold to the brothel for $73.